These tasty tacos pack a lot of punch on the nutrition front as they are crammed with goodness. You can vary the ingredients based on what you have available.

Serves 3 – 4

Ingredients:

• 1 red onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 courgette (zucchini)
• 1/4 – 1/2 of a red chilli
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Box of hard shell tacos (not a kit as the prepared spice mix is full of things your body doesn’t need like anti caking agent)
• small tin or 1/2 full tin of sweetcorn (drained)
• small tin or 1/2 tin of blackbeans (drained)
• 400g minced beef
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• salt & pepper
• beef stock
• lettuce or spinach leaves, diced tomato, capsicum, avocado for topping (amount dependent on how many you are serving)
• grated cheddar and sour cream to serve (optional if you are avoiding dairy)

Method:

• Turn your oven onto 180 degrees for the tacos
• Put the onion, carrot, courgette, red chilli and garlic into a food processer and pulse until very finely chopped
• Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan and saute the onion mix gently until soft. While this is softening prepare your salad vegetables to top your tacos
• Add the minced beef to the cooked onion mix, break up and cook gently until just brown
• Add the tomato paste, paprika, ground cumin, dried oregano and salt and pepper
• Mix in the corn and the blackbeans
• Just cover with beef stock and simmer with the lid off until the liquid has evaporated
• Now put your tacos into the hot oven for 3 – 5 minutes until they are crispy
• Test for seasoning, you might need more salt if you are using unsalted stock
• Pop everything on your table, your hot bowl of taco filling, your toppings and your condiments and dig in.

Cooking for one notes:

• You will probably only have 2 – 3 tacos so place the rest in an airtight container.
• Use fresh mince so you can freeze this down when cool. Or keep in the fridge for up to 3 days – this is great topping for a jacket potato.

Variation notes:

• You can make this vegetarian if you prefer by switching out the beef for lentils and using vegetable stock
• You can use white onion if you don’t have red, you can also use spring onions. Capsicums are great in this also
• Taco shells are simply ground corn, oil and salt. You could also use soft tortillas to make burritos instead.

Cover photo by e torres